Posts Tagged ‘1986 Corvette’

Here we are in the middle of November with the sights and sounds of Christmas in full steam. While out in the shop last night working on the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod, there was lots of Christmas music on the local classic rock radio station. This created a nice atmosphere for working on the hot rod for several hours before a late Saturday night supper and movie with my wife.

Today I have a simple project for the hot rod, a simple and cheap gas pedal. Several years ago when I dismantled the 1986 Corvette Indy Pace car convertible, I kept as many parts as I could use for the build of the hot rod. Everything else was sold either locally, or on eBay, with many parts heading off to all corners of the earth and a great cash reward at the end of it all. The gas pedal assembly from the 1986 Corvette seemed like a logical item to save.

To connect the gas pedal to the carburetor, ¼” (inch) tie rod ends were used on each end of a ¼” (inch) aluminum rod. The tie rod ends were the only items I purchased for this project. To determine the location of the hole through the firewall for the throttle rod I attached it to the carburetor. Then I positioned the throttle rod parallel to the engine both vertically and horizontally. Once satisfied of the position, I scribed a center mark on the firewall. Remember, measure twice and cut once.

Using a ½” (inch) stainless steel bolt and nut, a simple throttle rod bushing for the firewall was made on the metal lathe. I rounded the bolt head and drilled an oversized hole through the bolt for the¼” (inch) throttle rod to pass through. The rounded bolt head was mildly polished starting with course grit sandpaper ending up with 600 grit sand paper while in the lathe. Since I am using very solid motor mounts on the engine I am able to use this method of the connecting the gas pedal to the carburetor instead of a cable. The motor mounts I fabricated some time ago are 2” (inch) diameter by 1” thick urethane rubber mounts between the engine and the chassis. This method of mounting the engine to the chassis will prevent much engine twist during acceleration. This is an important consideration when using a solid throttle rod connection the gas pedal to the carburetor.

Now that I know exactly where the throttle rod will enter into the cockpit, the exact mounting location for the Corvette gas pedal assembly can be determined. For the gas pedal to work in the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod, the mounting bracket needed to be modified, and the upper arm was shortened slightly. After a simple test fitting of the modified Corvette gas pedal on the hot rod, I quickly realized that the Corvette pedal pad was not a good fit for the hot rod. Using a scrap piece of ¼” (inch) steel plate and fabricated a spoon shaped pedal pad and adapted it to the Corvette pedal assembly. I was even able to adapt the small spring on the pedal pad. This small spring maintains a good pedal pad position when not in use. Later on, both the brake and gas pedal pads with be faced with aluminum or even replaced with an aluminum one. Another option might even be to use stainless steel for both the brake and gas pedal pads. These will be the finer details of the hot rod build that can be worked out once the car is on the road.

As it would happen, the mild modifications to the Corvette gas pedal assembly provided a perfect fit for the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod. Of course when I completed the modifications to the gas pedal, I did not have any machine shop equipment. If I were to do the job today, I would have fabricated one entirely from scratch. If I am going to complete the hot rod and enjoy driving it, I must look forward and not rebuild things because I have more shop equipment. Otherwise, the build will never get completed. The plan now is to have the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod on the road next summer. With the build about 85% complete, the last 15% is taking most of the time.

When you take on the challenge of building your own car, street rod, hot rod, rat rod, or performing your own automobile repairs, the more skills you have, everything becomes simpler. This is true when working on a house, technology, or anything else. One of the draw backs if you want to call it that would be the time element. The more you can do yourself, the project, whatever it might be, takes longer to complete. The advantage when doing work yourself, there is sense of satisfaction and pride, not to mention a financial saving. The financial saving is increasingly becoming a large factor when you look at how everyday living expenses are growing. Just one simple thing, the cost of fuel, both gas and diesel fuel have increased substantially in the last 3 to 4 months. The increased cost of getting back and forth to work is diverting money for recreation, hobbies, leisure, and all those other non-essential items.

Growing up without much money and having a father with many skills, I learnt how to do a lot. This sometimes is a bit of a curse, as everything takes just a bit longer to complete. As I see it, if you are intending to build a hot rod, why not learn how to do as much on the car as possible.

Now it’s time for me to install the brake lines on the 1929 Model A Ford roadster hot rod. There was a few ways I could tackle this job. I did have a new coil of 3/16” (0.1875”) steel brake tubing but I needed to purchase all of the fittings and straighten the brake line, not mention I would need to make the ISO metric bubble flares. Another option was to purchase straight pre-made lengths of brake lines with the correct fittings. This option seemed to make sense but none of the lines would be an exact fit on the 1929 Ford Roadster hot rod. Not wanting excessive amounts of brake lines on the frame or chassis, I decided that cutting them to the length I required and re-doing the flare was the best path for me. I am the sort of person that thrives on learning new things. This curiosity required me to learn how to make the ISO metric bubble flare.

My 1929 Model A Ford roadster hot rod has C4 Corvette suspension removed from a wrecked 1986 Corvette Indy Pace car. The brake components from this vintage of Corvette use the ISO Metric bubble flare. A few years ago, I purchased a rather inexpensive double flaring tool kit. As with most things, especially with tools, you get what you pay for. This kit was okay for making a single flare, but inverted double flares would never come out perfectly no matter how careful I was. I found that there was too much play in many of the parts required to make the inverted double brake line flare. Oh well, I couldn’t be too disappointed as I only paid $25 for the kit. Now there is good in everything. I found this same kit would make a perfect ISO Metric bubble flare every time.

ISO Metric bubble flare - An example of an in-expensive double flaring tool kit. Great for single flares and the ISO Metric bubble flare. This does not make a good double inverted flare. There is too much play in several of the components.

Having the ability to make good ISO Metric bubble flares, I felt that purchasing pre-made brake lines longer then I required would be a compromise to this interesting hot rod task.

This first step was to plan a layout for the brake lines and then approximate the lengths of all needed brake lines. Then I went off to see my friends at NAPA and purchased what I needed to completed the job. My intention is to shorten the lines I purchased from NAPA to the exact length required for the 1929 Ford roadster hot rod.

In order to create perfectly shaped brake lines, I used 0.125 inch ( 1/8th”) wire and created the required shapes for all brake lines. These then became templates for the actual brake lines. Carefully measuring all of the templates, all brake lines were cut to size allowing an extra 0.25 inches ( ¼” inch) for the bubble flare. Once the tubing was cut, I used a soft wire wheel on the stationary grinder to de-burr the cut tubing. This is fast and produces a nicely finished cut tube. Of course you can also use the de-burring tool usually supplied with the flaring tool kit, but with the cheaper kit I purchased, I found that it did not work all that well.

ISO Metric bubble flare - An example of a wire template for accurate brake line bending. A 0.125" or 1/8" wire was used to pre-shape the actual brake line. This is a real time saving tip.

The next most important step is to install the brake line fittings with the correct orientation. Now mount the brake tubing into the flaring bar such that the freshly cut tubing is facing the flat side of the flaring bar and the flat side of the flaring bar is facing in an upward direction. For 0.1875 inch (3/16”) tubing leave about 0.25 inch (1/4”) exposed from the face of the flaring bar.

ISO Metric bubble flare - Getting ready to make the ISO Metric bubble flare. The flat side of the flaring bar is facing upwards and about 0.25" or 1/4" of the 0.1875" or 3/16" tubing is exposed from the face of the flaring bar. The flaring bar needs to be firmly tightened to prevent any movement during the flaring process.

For a quality flare, mount the flaring bar with the clamped tubing into a bench vice. This will prevent un-necessary movement during the flaring process and make the alignment of the flaring yoke and inverted flaring adapter button easier.

ISO Metric bubble flare - Ready to make the flare. The flaring yoke and inverted flaring adapter are set up squarely onto the clamped brake tubing. Perfect alignment at this point in very important in order to make a perfect bubble flare.

Once everything is lined up perfectly, tighten the flaring yoke onto the tubing. Do not over tighten the flaring yoke as excessive force will destroy the flare. It would be a good idea to make a few practice flares on some scrap tubing before making the bubble flares on brake lines that will be used on a car.

With the flare complete, remove the flaring yoke, inverted flaring adapter button, and remove the tubing from the flaring bar. I have noticed that the flaring process does reduce the hole opening on the tubing and would restrict the flow of brake fluid to a minor extent. To optimized the brake line, I use a 0.125 inch (1/8”) drill bit to ream out the hole opening. The brake line will need to be clamped in a bench vice for this optional step.

ISO Metric bubble flare - optional step - drill the opening carefully with a 0.125" or 1/8" drill bit to open up the flare. This will improve fluid flow once installed.

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